Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Is Chapter 478 suitable for adaptation into a TV series?
After pondering for a long time, Zhu Weilian looked at the phone on the table. A few seconds later, he picked up the phone, found Cao Sheng's number in the contacts, and dialed it.

However, Cao Sheng did not answer the phone for quite a while after it was dialed.

William Zhu looked somewhat surprised.

Was Cao Sheng unwilling to answer his call? Or was he busy with something and didn't hear the phone ring?

He remembered that Cao Sheng usually didn't write in the morning, and he would usually answer the phone if he called Cao Sheng in the morning. Why wasn't he answering today?
After thinking for a while, he sent a message to Cao Sheng.

"Mr. Cao, when you're not busy, give me a call. I need to discuss something with you."

The text message was sent, but Cao Sheng did not call back.

William Zhu chuckled self-deprecatingly and casually tossed his phone onto the table.

His expression was somewhat complicated.

……

Huizhou.

In the study.

Cao Sheng is currently writing the outline for "Cultivation Chat Group".

He didn't used to write in the mornings, but ever since Ma Huateng urged him to publish his new book as soon as possible, he changed his habit and now sits in front of the computer every morning to prepare the outline for his book, "Cultivation Chat Group".

After these past few days of preparation, the outline for "Cultivation Chat Group" is almost complete.

After all, he only planned to write about two million words for this book.

Unlike the original "Cultivation Chat Group" in the original timeline, which had over 800 million words.

Therefore, he didn't need to prepare a very long outline for this book.

However, he had never written a slice-of-life story before, nor did he have experience in writing outlines for this type of work, so he wrote it relatively slowly.

He needed to make the book interesting in the outline.

He believes that entertainment value is the biggest selling point of everyday content.

Because slice-of-life novels progress slowly, it's difficult to attract readers through the main plot, so they have to focus on everyday details.

We should strive to make every chapter interesting.

This is actually not easy.

How was the original "Cultivation Chat Group" made?

Cao Sheng recalled some details, such as: at the beginning of the story, the male protagonist used a hot pot basin to refine elixirs, and through various detailed descriptions, he made the reader believe that it was reasonable for refining elixirs using a hot pot basin to succeed.

For example, using talismans with effects such as acceleration and reinforcement to give a tractor special effects, allowing the tractor to race against a sports car and even win.

For example, interesting things happen in a chat group among cultivators with different personalities.

and many more.

The main selling point of this book lies in these details.

If you're looking for a cultivation novel filled with ruthless battles, this book won't satisfy you.

But if you're looking for a lighthearted and entertaining cultivation novel, this book is a standout among its kind.

Therefore, writing this book well requires a lot of patience and the ability to think outside the box.

Don't always think about the duels between cultivators, and don't always think about quickly advancing the main plot of the story. Be able to slow down and create all sorts of interesting things in seemingly mundane daily life.

To achieve this effect, Cao Sheng believes it is important to create vivid and interesting characters.

The focus should not be entirely on the protagonist.

A significant amount of space needs to be devoted to developing each supporting character in the book. Only with enough outstanding supporting characters can these characters create wonderful sparks in their interactions with the protagonist.

At the same time, if the supporting characters are outstanding and their images are vivid enough, readers can be more immersed in the story and overlook the drawback of the slow pace of the main plot.

only……

Creating compelling supporting characters requires considerable skill from the writer.

In order to create these characters well, Cao Sheng tried a new writing style this time: first, he labeled each character, making them stereotypical characters.

Creating stereotypical characters is a lazy way to write.

In contrast, there is a vivid and lifelike character writing style.

This time, Cao Sheng first stereotyped these characters, and then added various details to them, such as height, face shape, catchphrase, behavior and other details.

When a stereotypical character is given more detailed settings, the character's image will naturally become more fleshed out and gradually break away from the stereotypical features.

Of course, doing this will test Cao Sheng's patience.

He needs to carefully design each character.

It's not difficult, but it really tests his patience.

Sure enough, after setting up a few characters, he couldn't help but stop and rest for a while. It was already past 10 a.m., so he stopped to rest again.

Looking at the character settings in the outline with a wry smile, he inexplicably recalled his senior year of high school.

At that time, he was in the liberal arts class.

The class is mostly girls.

Humanities subjects often involve memorization, such as Chinese, English, Politics, History, and Geography. Mathematics also requires memorizing numerous formulas.

It means there's something to memorize in every course. Girls are generally much more patient than boys.

Back then, he would see many girls in his class sitting in their seats all day long, memorizing and doing exercises, with generally calm expressions and no signs of impatience.

And what about him?
As he continued to memorize the book, he felt his patience running out, and he wanted to tear it up, but he was always stopped by reason.

He forced himself to patiently continue memorizing, and when he couldn't take it anymore, he would take out math problems to do. As a result, his math scores were among the top in the class, but he could never rank in the top ten in subjects like politics, history, and geography.

At that time, he realized that he had made the wrong choice when he chose between arts and sciences.

However, the mistake had already been made, so he could only grit his teeth and continue studying, continuing to compete with the girls in memorizing texts.

Looking back now, those days are simply unbearable to recall.

And now, he's actually going to start a slice-of-life story... It's time to test my patience again!
Fortunately, during the two years he studied humanities, he finally developed patience.

—It's just a test of patience. There aren't that many female writers in the male-oriented genre. I don't believe that someone with a humanities background like me can't match the patience of other male writers.

In front of the computer.

This thought flashed through Cao Sheng's mind.

My initial agitation gradually subsided.

At the same time, he suddenly thought of a major difference between male-oriented and female-oriented novels.

Male-oriented novels feature increasingly grand worldviews, with main storylines characterized by decisive and ruthless battles, often involving life-and-death struggles. The villains are essentially created to be killed by the protagonist.

The battles were increasingly grand, with each one more spectacular than the last; it wasn't uncommon for one or two planets to be shattered.

And what about female-oriented novels?

They are mostly romance stories disguised under various themes.

In an effort to offer fresh perspectives on romance, some female-oriented novels have moved beyond limiting love to humans, with some works portraying caterpillars as male monsters who fall in love with female supporting characters.

Some works portray dragons as the male protagonist, who then falls in love with the female protagonist.

Some works even depict eunuchs falling in love with a female character and becoming her devoted admirers.

and many more.

This writing style in female-oriented novels is widely ridiculed by male readers in the online literature community.

but……

Cao Sheng recalled that after the trend of adapting online novels into film and television dramas became popular, female-oriented novels, which were disguised in various genres, were generally more favored by the film and television industry.

Adapted films and television series are also more likely to achieve success.

In contrast, male-oriented novels, which originated from online literature, have frequently failed in their adaptation into film and television dramas.

Even top-tier works in the male-oriented novel genre have frequently flopped after being adapted into film and television dramas.

Only a few male-oriented novels aimed at literary youth can achieve good ratings and word-of-mouth when adapted into film and television dramas.

For example, works by Miao Ni and Feng Huo.

Why has this situation arisen?
As one of the writers of male-oriented novels, Cao Sheng has naturally thought about this question many times.

Initially, he thought it was a problem with the filming costs.

Because female-oriented novels are generally romance stories disguised under various themes, the highlights are mainly concentrated in the love scenes. Therefore, during filming, not much investment is needed for special effects. Occasionally, a few action scenes can be interspersed. The rest of the time, the characters in the drama can talk about love and romance, which is more than enough.

Therefore, female-oriented novels are more suitable for adaptation into film and television dramas.

In contrast, the appeal of male-oriented novels generally lies in their grand world-building, cultivation levels, and action scenes.

Especially for those popular works that are eligible to sell film and television adaptation rights, their selling points are almost entirely in these areas.

To capture these selling points effectively, a large amount of special effects footage will be required, and the investment in special effects will be staggering.

Film and television companies must strictly control costs when producing any film or television series.

This creates a huge contradiction: male-oriented novels require a lot of money to produce special effects, while film and television companies try their best to cut investment costs, resulting in films and television dramas with cheap special effects.

How can films and TV series with cheap special effects immerse the audience in the story?

With such a lack of immersion, how can one be moved by such a film or television drama?
later……

Cao Sheng thought of another reason.

The writing style of female-oriented novels is actually the same as that of traditional novels.

The writing style of male-oriented novels is an anti-traditional novel writing style.

However, when adapting novels into films and television dramas, the screenwriters they hire are generally traditional screenwriters. They are very good at adapting female-oriented novels, but they completely fail to grasp the appeal of male-oriented novels. They forcibly twist male-oriented novels that are contrary to traditional novel writing style and adapt them into traditional novels and film and television dramas.

What good stuff can come from such modifications?

but……

Cao Sheng suddenly realized that slice-of-life works like "Cultivation Chat Group" are actually quite similar to the writing style of female-oriented novels. Although they don't focus on romance like female-oriented novels, slice-of-life works, if adapted into film and television dramas, would not require many special effects shots, and the investment cost would be relatively low.

However, it seems that the novel "Original Timeline" was not adapted into a TV series?

Is it because this novel isn't popular enough?
Or is it because the author isn't famous enough?
Or perhaps for some other reason?
Cao Sheng didn't know.

He couldn't help but wonder: Now that I'm writing this book, with my current fame in the online literature world, will it be adapted into a TV series in the future?

If it were adapted into a TV series, what would the ratings and reviews be like? Would viewers like to watch it?
(End of this chapter)